The boys used to enjoy to watch the transporter come and deliver the new Range Rovers, maybe once a week or so it would pull up outside and off loading 6 or 7 shiny new cars but not so now, more like several times a day, the novelty has seriously worn off. A garage that was near to closure 3 or 4 years ago when 4x4s were the evil gas guzzlers that typified all that was selfish and wrong with our nation has been saved, really I suspect, by two very snowy winters when the vehicles they sell are what you need if you have to get to work. The new shape Range Rovers are proving really popular too, apparently 11 a day are being sold.
When I'm folding laundry I like watching the Salesmen ( I don't think there are any women) on the forecourt, trying to read the body language of the prospective customers. The Bentley deliveries are fun to view, they arrive in a single dispatch totally covered in fleecy cotton wool. One of the delivery vehicles can deposit them straight into the showroom but the other is too tall and does not fit under the petrol station canopy, this means the expensive (circa £100k depending on the model) have to be rolled onto the busy A road. We watched one covered in fleece travel the treacherous few meters to the showroom last week, the windscreen useless as it was covered in a thick, white blanket!
To me, as a home educator, driving is interesting as a learning experience, not taught in school yet in some areas an almost necessary life skill. It is formally tested and examined and, thanks to the introduction of the theory test has, arguably, become more difficult to avoid structured paid for tuition. Driving tests are rarely held at night or in the snow and yet everyday people drive in these conditions. Prior to the introduction of formal testing though I assume learning to operate a car would have followed a more autonomous pattern. These are the thoughts that fill my brain as I watch the shiny new cars head from the forecourt to their new homes.
